Social Media: It’s Free! Use It!

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin Pinterest…Social media is everywhere and a wonderful platform you can utilize to promote your business and your brand. Knowing how to use it is the tricky part.

I love looking at photos of beautiful things. These images inspire and excite. Clearly, I can’t be the only one as social media appears to be everybody’s favorite past time. And while I lament the days passed of hand written thank yous and not always being “connected”, I’ve subscribed to the fact that if I can’t beat it I need to join it. After all, your future customers are all on board so you need to be as well.

Wicked Good currently utilizes the following platforms. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (although not as much as I should), Linkedin and Pinterest. We’ve made some Vine videos and are working on a “Wicked Good TV” channel for Youtube. Quite honestly I could spend a large percentage of my day just trying to keep up with these fast paced outlets. And I do. Consistency and frequency of posts/images and tweets grab attention. Just be careful not to overdo it. Empty content is worse than none.

In a nutshell we use twitter for business related announcements that are timely and interesting to the general public. We do intersperse a few tweets about product but we don’t overdue. I will readily admit I am struggling to find out the secret to gaining traction but that’s my struggle not yours.

Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are used more to showcase finished product as we have a very visual commodity.

And Linkedin is our go to guide to find the people we want to get in front of.

One of the best pieces of advice I will impart upon you is this. When using your social media you need to know when it’s time to stop selling. Yup. That’s right. Cool it with the hard sell. Think about how you feel. Do you like being constantly nudged and prodded to buy? It’s kind of a turn off isn’t it?

To be a real success with your social media you need to stop harassing your customers and followers. Instead of selling why not offer them some fun recipe? Or how about a link to an article that relates to your industry and is unique and interesting? Have a customer give away where you do something for the people who have helped build your business. Remember it’s not always all about you. You’ll experience a better give and take with your customers when you ask them questions and empower them by asking them to respond. Just be sure to monitor your online dialogue as it can sometimes take a negative turn and nobody needs or wants that.

My last bit of advice on this subject is this. Your business accounts are just that. Business accounts. Please don’t climb on your soap box and start spouting off about religion, politics and other competitors. NEVER bad mouth another competitor! It seems like that should be common sense but I’ve seen some ugly dialogue out there and it’s just not cool. Social media is a fun and FREE way to reach the masses. Take the time to read your posts or tweets twice before putting them out there. Check them once for grammar and spelling and a second time for content. Once you hit that button, you have launched your words into cyberspace and they aren’t always easy to retract. Think before you tweet/post! And NO drunk tweeting!